How do you respond to a creeping authoritarian takeover? Resistance takes many forms. This coming Saturday, people will take to the streets throughout the country for “No Kings” protests. The federal shutdown is all about the Democrats in Congress resisting the Republican refusal to negotiate as the Trump administration cuts Medicare, Medicaid, and other public programs in order to fund tax cuts for billionaires.
And it’s striking how many current and forthcoming shows can be viewed as literal acts of resistance. The play that opened this week about the rise of Nazism feels like a direct response. But even Dylan Mulvaney’s solo show, which opened this past week – along with an all-trans “Drowsy Chaperone” coming to Carnegie Hall later this month, and the announcement of the transfer of “CATS: A Jellicle Ball” to Broadway next Spring — all feel like a response to the standard authoritarian playbook of scapegoating a minority. When the government is denying a group’s existence, what better strategy than to become more visible?
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
The Least Problematic Woman in the World Review
Dylan Mulvaney has chosen an obviously ironic title for her extravagantly staged solo show about her viral life story as a targeted trans social media celebrity. But she also exudes an innate sincerity. Beneath all the campy scenes and quirky original songs, she lets us know that all she ever wanted was for everybody to like her; she certainly never meant to become so notorious.
Crooked Cross
After an alarming vacation in Germany, British writer Sally Carson wrote “Crooked Cross” about the rise of Nazism as told through its effect on one ordinary German family. It was published as a novel in 1934; the following year, she adapted it into a play. Both versions were long forgotten until now. The novel was republished five months ago to great acclaim. The play is opening tonight for the first time anywhere since 1937, in the latest of the Mint Theater Company’s sturdy restorations on a budget. It is, as usual for Mint productions, impressively performed and well designed. But, if the point in reviving Carson’s 90-year-old story is to offer a relevant lesson in the process and impact of an authoritarian takeover, there is something missing in the translation from novel to play.
Art
“Art” is not about art, and it’s not really about friendship. If it’s about anything at all, the Broadway revival of Yasmina Reza’s 30-year-old play is about the celebrity of Bobby Cannavale, James Corden and Neil Patrick Harris, who star as longtime friends who come to blows over an expensive all-white painting….All three are also experienced stage actors, deft at generating laughs from a squabble that has no credible stakes, and projecting a feeling of camaraderie among characters who seem to share nothing in common
What goes into the making of a musical theater production? The process, from audition to curtain call, is presented in verse and illustrations about the people involved, from director to actor to stage crew, but also the inanimate objects that the theater depends on: The script, the rehearsal piano, the stage, the costumes, the lights, the musical instruments in the orchestra (violins, brass, woodwinds, percussion) and the curtain each gets their say in “Limelight: Curtain Up on Poetry Comics” (Charlesbridge Moves, 144 pages)
The Week in New York Theater News
There are now 24 shows with venues and dates in the Broadway 2025-2026 Broadway season
“Cats: The Jellicle Ball” (the queer Ballroom version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical) is opening April 7 at Broadway’s Broadhurst Theater.
“The Lost Boys,” a musical based on the 1987 horror movie, is opening at Broadway’s Palace Theater on April 26 Music by The Rescues. Cast includes Caissie Levy, Ali Louis Bourzgui, More details in my Broadway 2025-2026 season preview guide
The Drowsy Chaperone at Carnegie Hall, October 20, Breaking the Boundary Theater, featuring an all-transgender, non-binary, and Two-Spirit+ (TNB2S+) cast, including Laverne Cox, Dylan Mulvaney, Alex Newell, Peppermint, Jonathan Van Ness, Betty Who,
Broadway Beginnings: Celebrating 35 years of New 42 online and in person at 92y, November 11, with J. Harrison Ghee, Mandy Gonzalez, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Jim Parsons coming together for “an intimate matinee of stories, songs, memories, and revelations.”
Heather Christian, 44, composer, lyricist, playwright and vocalist whose Oratorio for Living Things is about to open in a revival at Signature, is one of 22 recipients of this year’s MacArthur Foundation “genius” awards.
Michael Cerveris (Fun Home, Sweeney Todd) will play Ebenezer Scrooge in the New York return of Matthew Warchus’ production of “A Christmas Carol,” adapted by by Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Netflix’s “Adolescence”), November 23 – December 28, opening December 4. The same adaptation ran on Broadway in 2019 with a different cast.
Dishonoring Columbus On Stage
In Memoriam
Diane Keaton (Jan 5 1946 – Oct 11 2025): Her short career on Broadway
